After weeks of warmish weather the temperature finally fell below freezing. In first week of December I plan to have five days of holiday - that would be a good time to butcher my lambs. After that I could release Pekka the Ram from his smaller separate pen and bring him together with the adult sheep. That should mean new lambs to be born the coming May.

Yesterday evening late I went to give hay to the sheep and lambs. When I got to their pen I suddenly felt somebody pressing against my feet, and pushing so hard that I had to take couple of steps to maintain my balance. I turned to look and saw Pekka the Ram. Somehow he had managed to escape his separate pen, and now he was looking for a way to get inside the bigger pen where the females live. Oh well. I went to investigate and soon found a place where Pekka's fence was broken. I managed to push him back into his pen, I quickly repaired the hole and hoped that Pekka would stay inside his pen for a week or two, until my planned holiday.

Today in the morning I found Pekka the Ram inside the bigger pen. He had managed to escape his pen, and apparently had been ramming one of the fence posts of the bigger pen, making the fence tilt so that he could climb over it. I decided to let him enjoy his victory... It just means that I have to butcher the lambs this Sunday when I have a free day. This is because Pekka is their father, and it might not be a good idea to let him make his own daughters pregnant.

Now when Pekka is with the sheep he shows very stereotypical macho ram behaviour. Whenever I approach the pen Pekka immediately rushes towards me, trying to scare me away. When I enter the pen to bring them hay Pekka does his best to keep me away from his women, always positioning himself in between me and them, sometimes forcefully pressing against me, trying to push me away. Sometimes kicking with his front legs, which is a sign of a challenge to fight. But I don't pick a fight with him, I just bring them hay and leave the pen. It is almost as if Pekka feels frustrated when there isn't a fight. As if he would feel more proud and more fully alive if he had to fight for his women, to physically defeat his rivals, to win a fight and to make the other males either to submit or to go away. But as there are no other rams around he treats me as a rival, asking for a physical fight.

Last year I saw Pekka fighting with one of his own sons. The young ram was already adult enough to understand what it means to fight for women. The females were in the bigger pen, Pekka and his son were in a smaller pen, challenging each other. They didn't have horns, but they just ran towards each other, jumping up and ramming each other in the mid-air. They did that so many times with such a force that finally the young ram dropped dead on instant... That taught me a lesson, and this year I arranged so that the male lambs went to my neighbours well before they turned to young adults.

For the past couple of years when I've been rearing sheep I've been thinking how much we humans share that kind of basic psychology. To me it seems that many of the same patterns are visible in humans, too. In the old times male rivals could fight lethal duels, in the post-war times it was accetable for men to have a fist-fight if they were interested in a same woman. And what about extreme nationalism, the way of treating immigrants as unwanted rivals, fearing that they come to steal our women and working places? Or, more generally speaking - if we can argue that for Pekka the ram it is natural to behave the way he does, then can't we just go on arguing that for humans it is also natural and acceptable to have those same traits? After all, we men have testicles too, and if the hormones make us feel and behave like rams, then what is wrong with that? And similarly, if the female sheep are happy to have the strongest male protecting them, so that they can mind their own businesses while the male is busy fighting the external threats, then why should human females be any different?

From that macho point of view, if men don't behave like rams and if women aren't like sheep then they are weak and submissive. Similarly, I've heard arguments saying that a certain amount of selfishness is natural for humans - if people aren't allowed to be selfish they become apathic and lazy, but if people are allowed to pursue for their private profits then that will automatically make the business bloom. Without a healthy dose of selfishness there is no progress, no advance, no growth, no spark and no power in the human effort.

But, honestly, I see no reason why it would be like that for humans too. I do understand that something of this indeed is written in our genes, but that just doesn't mean that there aren't other natural, plausible alternatives. I think I've said this before, but the mere fact that we are born with no ability to read and write doesn't mean that it is unnatural for us to be literate. Nor does it mean that being literate restricts basic human nature. Rather, in our genetic heritage there already is the ability to learn to speak, write and read. So, I also believe that in our biological nature there also is the ability to learn benevolence, peace, tolerance and universal co-operation based on deep empathy. It is just that these skills don't appear without guidance, support and learning - I believe it requires a process of personal emotional growth, just as learning to write and to do maths requires cognitive learning.

I understand that it would be of no use trying to restrict or over-control my biological basic traits of being a male. But I feel that the genetic biological basis offers me a lot of potential, different ways of growing and developing my personality and my emotional reactions. And I believe that in this modern world people are free to find and follow their own ways of being a male, a female, or something else. Which effectively leads to a culture where there aren't strict gender roles - yet at the same time everyone should ideally be free to find one's own inner strength, self-esteem, motivation and a sense of meaning of personal existence. The ram/sheep way of being a male/female is just one way among the many other possible ways, and I personally prefer a non-macho way as I dislike violence.

Oh well, once again it is 1 am, I should be already sleeping. Tomorrow I have three customers and some other work to be done. So, good night everybody!